Courting theIowa ActivistsSix candidates (Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Obama, and Richardson) joined Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa at his annual "Harkin Steak Fry". The Obama Campaign was extremely organized. That is the sense I got watching it on c-span. And the word is that over 3000 supporters were bused in, made all those wonderful "O" signs, and met Obama prior to the speech off. One interesting tidbit, this came from Senator Harkin prior to the speech off, and that was about organization. He said to win the Iowa caucus is about "organization". Many say they will caucus but don't. You need to convince people to come out on a cold, wintry night to caucus. That statement says it all. I remember reading something from desmoinesdem who stated almost the exact same thing. Folks, it is all about getting your people out to caucus, period.

But the made-for-TV moment was won by the Obama campaign. It wasn't quite the march on Washington, but Barack Obama -- leading a column of about 1,000 supporters -- marched along a dirt road and along the rolling green fields leading into the steak fry, waving signs, chanting, and appearing to present the candidate as the messiah of "change" and "hope.”

On that note, you could mistake Tom Harkin's steak fry for an Obama rally. It was in fact preceded by an Obama rally, and the train of Obama supporters behind a marching band stretched for at least a hundred yards. His campaign said he'd given out 2,000 T-shirts, a number that seemed plausible.

Visitors were also greeted by a noisy gauntlet of Edwards supporters, and a sparser group of Clinton supporters handing out megaphones. Clinton and Biden, who was also pretty visible, seemed to have won the contest to place the most signs along the road.

The Obama campaign sees the its cast of thousands as an organizational test, and if it is, its one at which they seem to have beaten Clinton -- who lost her Iowa field director last week.

"This is an event where you get to demonstrate an organization," said Obama's communcations director, Robert Gibbs.

No onto what Obama said about the war and George W. Bush.

"Everybody is sick and tired of being sick and tired of George Bush," said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. "All you have to do is take a look at the president pretending that going around in circles was making progress. If that doesn't get you ready to get rid of George Bush I don't know what will."

What else do you need on that statement? We do have a sitting president, in denial.

Obama said he would not vote for any war-funding measure that doesn't include a timeline for bringing troops home.

“We are going to bring an end to this war and I will fight hard in the United States Senate to make sure we don’t pass any funding bill that does not have a deadline,” Obama told the crowd.

By making the statement, Obama joined only Dodd, who has been critical of Clinton and Obama for their resistance to tying war appropriations to a schedule.

Clinton has resisted pressure to insist that paying for the war’s expenses be contingent on a firm deadline for having soldiers out.

That squelches all that speculation of last week. Dodd is there, Obama went there, Edwards has been there, expect Clinton to, copy.

In a major speech on economic policy, the Illinois Senator condemned the Bush administration's "massive tax cuts" and called for more transparency in the housing market, following the subprime mortgage crisis.

"In recent years, we have seen a dangerous erosion of the rules and principles that have allowed our market to work and our economy to thrive," Obama said in a speech at the NASDAQ market site.

"Instead of thinking about what's good for America or what's good for business, a mentality has crept into certain corners of Washington and the business world that says, 'what's good for me is good enough.'" Obama said. more, Adam B

Early State Webpagesappearances and events are changing continuously, click on the state below for updated information

Framing This Race is EverythingLynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a fair piece on Obama, moving from this foot forward, based on the memo sent by David Plouffe, Saturday, September 22nd. Spinning and framing is everything, apparently, this cycle. But what can end up happening is that you can come across as pandering to various groups, saying "this, that, and the other", and come out stating absolutely nothing concerning your real position of the issues. We already have enough of that swirling around right now.

And even though Iowa is now in a three-way tie — and the one state where former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has a decent chance of winning — Plouffe also cleverly starts to raise expectations about the need for Clinton to come in first. "Clinton will pay a severe price for not winning Iowa — national front runners always do," Plouffe writes. more

Obama Campaign and Getting the Vote OutIt starts here. With your telephone. With a script. And NYC.

The Obama Campaign has launched an incredible phone tool for its supporters to call New Yorkers and let them know about Barack in their city on September 27th. This tool is very easy. The script is provided and it is all about connecting with voters. I tried it this weekend, from the comfort of my couch, and it was super easy. Try it. More information, here.

Obama's Full Illinois Senate Legislative RecordObamaLurking, Can He Soar?

SEIU, What is Going to Happen Here?I can see, no endorsement, with all the background fighting. I wrote a diary earlier in the week based on SEIU requesting the top three candidates/campaigns come before the board and explain how they will WIN in 2008. An unusual request? Not really. Many unions endorsed, "prematurely" for Dean in 2004, and look what happened. So, many unions are cautious, listening and waiting. The reality is that we have three candidates that have a possiblity to win the general election. Clinton has name recognition and runs strong nationally, but the early state polling states something different along with her negative polling which gives many a pause; Edwards is running a totally different campaign on a "populist theme", which resonates with many across the country, but he is lagging behing in the national polling; Obama is running a campaign of "can we all work together", and this too, resonates with the public because of the hard partisianship in Washington, D.C., but does he have what it takes to WIN? This is why I see a "no endorsement". But Marc Armbinder says the SEIU Members prefer Edwards and Obama. We will see.

Obama, and Pauline Beck of Alameda, Calif., who hosted Obama in a 'Walk a Day in My Shoes' program

QuarterThree PredictionsIt will come down to this. Whose small donor base will crank out the numbers? Clinton has tapped over 74% of her maxed donors and is depending on her lobbyists monies to push her over the hump. Obama is at only 50% of maxed donors, so his train is just rolling along. Both of these candidates have enough monies NOW to compete past February 5th, but it will be interesting to see the total amount raised. Even more interesting to see what monies is primaries monies vs. general election monies. I think Obama will have the edge for primary money raised this quarter, along with a larger donor base. And I will not be surprised if Clinton brings in a larger total amount. She has been fundraising more, vs. Obama campaigning more. We will soon see.

Expanding in ColoradoDemocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the only candidate with ground troops in Colorado, is organizing a significant grassroots campaign in the state, according to his campaign manager.

"This will be a delegate by delegate battle," said David Plouffe in Denver on Thursday. "Because we have had success financially and enthusiastic grassroots supporters we can starting getting things in place for February 5th states."

Colorado, like roughly 20 other states, has moved up its presidential caucus to Feb. 5. Most candidates, including Obama, have allocated most of their resources in January caucus and primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Plouffe and former Denver Mayor Federico Pena, who is Obama's national co-chair, said the Illinois senator would appeal to the state's independent voters, which make up about one-third of Colorado's electorate. more; Rocky Mountain News

Between Now and September 30th the Obama Campaign is inviting its over 260,000 donors to match their contribution with a new donor. Their contribution will be matched with a new donor and you will have the opportunity to correspond with the person you matched and explain why you are supporting this campaign. Another ingenious way for people to communicate. Thousands have already participated since the conception. If you have not, click below and see why people do want change.

icebergslim’s last word: lobbyists, moveon.org and jena 6

What a week.

First, let’s attack the lobbyists. Chris Matthews’ Hardball Show had a stunning piece on Hillary Clinton’s lobbyist luncheon. It was first written by CPDem81 and the diarist really delved into what this meeting/luncheon was all about, but more importantly why is stinks of high heaven. (for the record, the John Edwards Campaign sent an email out to their supporters dissecting why this luncheon with lobbyists, straight up stinks) Then we get the video of Hardball where the Clinton spokesperson, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, was on her way there to debate the issue, but was told “not to go on the show”.

After viewing this video and reading CPDem’s diary, the only conclusion I came up with is “pay for play”. The verbage used by Matthews’ in describing all of this. This was a setup with top committee chairmen/women there to talk to “lobbyists” in breakout sessions, but of course, the admittance for this luncheon started at one grand and for the breakout sessions, much higher. Lobbyists are not stupid, they smell the writing on the wall, and feel that the shift next year will be democratic. But in the same token, these are individuals with stake in the game and want their “cushion or money flow” to remain the same. In other words, business as usual. If people don’t get this, then don’t complain for not paying attention, if Clinton gets into office. Change, that is one word she is not.

Next.

The wasteful atrocity of voting for a newspaper ad. If you were asleep, let me refresh your memory, “moveon.org”. We had major legislation up for vote this past week, dealing with Iraq, but all of it was overshadowed because our leadership “allowed it to be”. Giving the GOP the floor to grandstand on a newspaper ad was the most ridiculous thing I witnessed, since the stupid “flag amendment”. Remember that one? Moveon.org has a right to purchase any ad space they want to, regarding any positions its membership feel it should tackle. Instead of being smart about it, the democratic leadership allowed itself to be “swiftboated” by the GOP, who ran with it. Instead of the Iraq legislature being argued and discussed, we had to look at the grandstanding by the GOP. Because let’s be real, what do they have to say about Iraq? They cannot even defend this president on it, but our leadership allowed them time on the senate floor to use this “diversion” and trump moveon.org, instead of talking about Iraq.

Harry Reid. You blew it. Democrats, you are looking weaker as the days pass. Barack Obama, thank you for not voting on this petty amendment. Here is the low down.

Next.

Jena 6. All the hoopla over Jesse Jackson’s statement about Barack Obama not being in Jena and “acting white”. Damn, what was that about? When Mr. and Mrs. Barack Obama have made, repeated, statements about Jena, but of course, the MSM refuses to do their “due diligence” and just throw a story up for ‘sensationalism”. Sigh. And Jackson refutes saying this. Drama.

Anyway, the 30K+ people who assembled in Jena, Louisiana seemed to be “ripped out” of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. Only these were our young folk. Tired and fed up. Can we give them a shout out for standing up? This is the generation we have been looking at as “non-responsive”. Guess what? They get it, and thank god.

Racism is alive and well in the United States of America. We can debate this issue until the cows come home, but no one can disagree about the disparity in “treatment” of the white kids vs. the black kids. And no one can dispute that there are a lot of Jena’s around this country and a lot of kids being mistreated because of the judicial system.

I could write about this all day and night, but we know this is messed up. And we need to continue to become more engaged and keep our eye on the ball with this. Don’t know much about Jena? Start here and listen to NPR.

missed the weekly Obama roundup, bookmark this blog, This Week With Barack Obama, email me at icebergslim1047@hotmail.com, and if you have not given to the campaign, tip my obama jar. five bucks is the minimum. this goes directly to the Obama Campaign. if you appreciate the weekly roundup, go on and tip it. remember quarter three ends, september 30th

subscribe hereicebergslim on Daily Kos ShareNote: If you are viewing this in Firefox, on 17" monitor or smaller, the left panel may be blown. This is a firefox issue, if you view this in IE, Safari, Opera, Google Chrome, no issue. FYI.